Attacking the Neverending TBR Pile, book by book

Urania

Post navigation

** minor spoiler alert ** Oh boy…I almost stopped reading this book and didn’t get past my annoyance until about 35%. I’m thankful I stuck with it, but honestly, the parents and the way they were portrayed almost did my head in. I am still considering going back and forth each day and bumping my review back and forth from a 1 star to a 5 star. I just do not believe any person would act like these parents did. I can understand their lack of affection. Even how they seemed to not even want a child in the first place. I can even understand them being neglectful and seemingly uninterested. However, I still can’t believe that anyone would talk as they did (example – show up at a police station after your 14-year-old has just been part of a kidnapping, continually interrupting a police officer to correct him that it’s not your real child but an adopted child and then after doing that several times, interrupting him once again to explain how you wouldn’t mind “doing” a member of the royal family even if she was older than the normal type you liked, all the while never once showing any concern over the kidnapping). You have not only the father acting like this, but the mother as well.

I just found myself not finding these portrayals in any way true to life and it made me want to quit the entire book. I really don’t understand why they were portrayed as such. It would not have changed the book at all to have them as ‘normal’ disinterested, neglectful, self-centred people.

Once the story moved on from the parents (for the most part) I loved every word. I’ve read other novels that have tried to explain the sexual environments in the past to not be completely shocked by the horrors I read in this book. However, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t angry. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel for the characters in this book. I have to say that, unlike some others, I 100% felt that I saw the reasoning behind Cyril’s choices and the paths he decided to take.

But damn, I was so angry. Life is so fucking unfair (as quoted a few times in this novel).

I just don’t know. I didn’t cry at all during the reading of this novel, but I sure wanted to time and time again. For whatever reasons I was reminded time and time again of Patrick Gale’s ‘A Place Called Winter’. Two totally different stories, but both made me ache with loneliness and despair at the unfairness of so much…Both are books which I found almost poetic in the writing style and absolutely hauntingly beautiful in both word and story

There is so much of me that wishes I could say this book was just over the top with bad things happening. That one thing after another happened to Cyril and it was just too much to be believed. But I can’t. It all felt so genuine. Hence why my heart is broken when I read books like this…and I want to cry, not just for the characters, but for myself…and all of humanity…so many people just have to make other’s miserable no matter that it’s nothing to do with them… #loveislove

If you’ve read a Sedaris book and hated it…well…you won’t like this one either…I also have to ask why the hell not? Do you take life too seriously?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Sedaris takes life way too seriously, hence why he is so bitter and so very snarky.

I lost track how many times I laughed out loud during this one. Despite all the laughter there was some serious issues going on in this one. I come from a family that isn’t really what you would call close. I am not so daft as to not realise that the lack of family bonding I’ve had hasn’t affected me a great deal with my “grown up” issues. So whilst reading this, I just have to marvel at all the times Sedaris and his family attempt to be a family, despite the fact that they often don’t seem to feel that closeness…or perhaps that closeness is why they continue to reach out to one another. Don’t get me wrong, it’s obvious that Sedaris has a close bond with some of his siblings, however I often get the feeling that with others, meh, not so much…Maybe because of his age he makes those attempts and I still have a few years to get it right myself…after all, Sedaris also makes it clear that for many years of his youth he was out of touch with everyone on the planet, including himself!

However, I don’t think that’s it. Maybe my wires are completely severed and beyond repair…but alas, Sedaris in all his snark makes it pretty clear to me that it’s a choice I make…just like it’s a choice he makes to continue on…even though both of us might feel like it’s not really a choice at all…

See, I guess this isn’t a review, but it’s just the musings that reading the book has brought me to…

Regardless of all of that, if you love Sedaris even a little bit, you should hurry up and get to this one…

Why? ***Skip to the end if you’re easily offended*** Well, because honestly, now I can’t wait to to tell some to shove their fist up me arse and give my shite a good wanking off…you too, might need this ultimate insult information as well one day…

Honestly, maybe I shouldn’t post this review on my blog now…but dang it, after I picked my jaw up off the floor I almost fell down with the laughter at this ultimate insult..don’t we all need some honest to god outrageous and inappropriate belly laughs such as this from time to time…and Sedaris, as always, is happy to provide them for us…

Sometimes, not nearly enough times, mind you, but sometimes a book comes along and it changes you.

It doesn’t just break your heart, it crumbles it. It grinds it to bits. Sure you can gather all the bits and try to put them back together again, but it will never be the same. Just like crumbled biscuits you can gather them all together and make an amazing biscuit pudding (here’s a recipe! goo.gl/rPn9JF ) but no matter how hard you try to imagine it is hard to remember what the biscuits started out as.

That is my heart now. Different than it was before I started this novel. Perhaps a bit bigger, maybe even a bit better, maybe not, but certainly forever changed.

In the vast history of discrimination in the USA it is sometimes easy to focus on some types, whilst brushing the others under the straw mats of backwoods shacks.

Kya is beautiful. She is mysterious. She is a treasure. Not because she is different, but because she is the same. We all have that need to be seen and to be loved. Even whilst we run from these things, we often are just trying to see if someone will ‘stick’ regardless of it all.

I could go on and on about how an entire (except for a select VERY few) failed Kya. Instead I will challenge everyone, myself included, to see beyond the perceived facts we make about those we know not, and instead, see to the person that actually exists. The richness we find ourselves in or out of in this life, the country we live in, the religion we believe, the religion we scoff at, the colour of our skin, the education we have, well, so oftentimes, it’s just a roll of the dice. We have no control over it. It is decided before we are even born. We are all privileged in some way that another is not. Does that privilege make us a better, or a more worthy person? Or does it mean we need to try harder to be conscious of this and look deeper at those that aren’t so ‘fortunate’ as ourselves? If nothing else, I hope this book shows us that at the end of the day, we are not just cheating those we cast aside, but also ourselves by our inability to see the treasures right before our eyes.

** spoiler alert ** Okay, so I really enjoyed plenty in this book. However I had to take off major marks for the actual mystery. I don’t know. The whole concept just didn’t mesh for me.

Let me explain. I had no issues with the whole ghost seeing thing. I enjoyed the whole graveyard/ghost bit. I had no issues with most of the mystery. But I did feel like certain bits were thrown in just to misguide or to confuse the reader. They had no real purpose in Amelia’s story and they just showed up at just the right time. It was just too smooth. My other major issue (probably more so than any other) was the fact that at the end we find out that one of the players in the novel was actually a ghost and Amelia had no clue. So her and her father have went through their entire lives and met/seen countless ghosts and this has never came up before? Again, I felt that Stevens just threw this in there to confuse us and to lead us off track. That was the real purpose. It’s fine for an author to try to confuse us with FACTS, but not to just invent a different reality to lead us off course is not.

I don’t suppose many would see an issue with something like this, but I did. I really would have enjoyed the book more if I didn’t feel everything was just so forced and convoluted just for the sake of trying to make it more interesting and more of a hard solve. The storyline was already interesting by Amelia herself and also with the added tension between her and Devlin. It didn’t need more. The actual story and enjoyment I could have gotten from both the characters and story was lost in all the added details that really added nothing to the story except more words and misguidance.

Not sure if I’m really vested in continuing this series. I want to see more of Amelia and see her relationship with Devlin evolve, but I don’t fancy another cheat by Stevens to do so…

I just don’t know…I loved Harry Bosch years ago before he became a household name. Now, I just don’t have strong feelings for him. I don’t hate the books, but I certainly don’t love them. I’m oftentimes bored. I also feel that it all just fits in together too nicely at times. The detail to the crimes and the whole solving of them just isn’t the same as it used to be. I felt more involved and more present step by step. Now I just feel like an outsider that is watching everything fall into place in a nice neat pattern. It just doesn’t do anything for me. Maybe it’s because it’s cold cases now? I don’t know. I only know that although I will probably eventually get caught up in the series, that I am no great rush to hurry up and start the next book. I’m perfectly fine waiting a year or two to start the next one…and in the past I was always chomping at the bits waiting for release dates.

Harry Bosch used to be a very complex man who fought his inner demons. Now he’s just a mellow guy that’s biding his time…

I’ve had this novel forever and although my friends kept going on about how marvellous it was, I was still hesitant. Because I don’t read many blurbs (or reviews) for novels I was left thinking that this would be a story about a talking rat. Well, all I will say is it’s not! I also had no idea it was first written as a short story in 1959 and expanded on and published in the mid 1960’s. I thought it was written in the early 2000’s. Nor did I know anything about a movie (but I am not a telly type person). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not dated at all…except perhaps some terminology. I never considered me a real stickler for PC terms, but by golly, I sure felt like some Pollyanna type after reading this and being offended time and time again at times in this book when people referred to mentally challenged individuals.

I really loved this book. However, I find it difficult to find it inspirational and inspiring as many others did. I wonder if that is a flaw in me or if I am just stuck with being a pessimist and a realist.

AAMOF, not only was I not inspired I was a bit pissed off that people really couldn’t see Charlie’s worth until he became more intelligent and then started to decline in intelligence.

Sometimes I don’t mind feeling conflicted over books. On the contrary, I love books that challenge me and leave me struggling to come to terms with my feelings. This one however really bothered me. It wasn’t the story, it was society in general. It was for the Charlie’s of the world that never gain that intelligence and never realise how many of the world look at them. How worth is often weighed by that intelligence. How people are often afraid of people that are mental challenged. And the whole PC of all of it. I wonder if a book like this could even be written today just in case it upsets someone’s sensibilities.

I’m angry for Charlie. More angry than he ever was. I’m angry at so many characters in the novel. I’m angry at those that can only find amusement at other’s expense. At people that tear other’s down in order to only look out for their own interests.

I’m angry at a society that still, today, in many ways, refuses to find a place 0f acceptance for all people, regardless of where they fall in the intelligence spectrum.

Yea…I’m really conflicted. Charlie was a good person. Even before the “new and improved” Charlie showed up at the scene. That acceptance I speak of could have made a world of difference in his life before his operation. Instead the book ends with him felling even less worth as a person than he did at the beginning, which was too damned low to start with. I loved the book, but I find it near impossible to take away just good from this story. Or be inspired by it…

This was a truly fascinating read. I’m not much of a science person. Never have been. It was perhaps my least favourite subject in school. I even liked maths more…and I HATE maths…but regardless, I found this novel fascinating.

Two points, as I am sure you don’t need me to summarize this novel and tell you what it’s about…that’s what the blurb on the cover is for!

First point, whilst I loved this novel it was a bit off-putting after a while to be so obsessed with needing to know what was fact and what was fiction. The author does a decent job helping separate the fact from fiction in the notes in the back of the novel…however, I didn’t know this whilst reading it! Ha! I kept putting the novel down and searching out different incidents to see if they really happened. This was wonderful at the start…but it soon became hard work!!! It was distracting me time and time again from actually enjoying this novel as much as I think I could have.

This novel probably educated me more about history and inventions than school ever did. I couldn’t help but to wonder what it must have been like. To live in the an era that was changed so much by new inventions. How lives were forever changed by such men as were in this novel. Yes, there will always be new inventions…but I can’t imagine any that change so many lives in such a huge fashion.

Now, second thing, history is shaped just as much by the people who write it as it is shaped by the actual events that happen. Simplified, imagine all those times in primary school when your parents told you to ignore something and it would go away. That if you keep on fighting with someone and giving them attention it wold never stop. Well history is the same. If the media, or schools or whatever, never talk about xy&z, well it’s not very long before xy&z just completely disappears in the history books…but on the other hand, the things that the media choose to report, or the schools decide to teach…well they remain the history that future generations start to believe. It doesn’t matter if huge chunks are missing…or even if they aren’t all exactly true…they *become* true over time as more and more people hear and repeat it.